Overview
As an editor, I pride myself on striking a balance between being supportive, and telling writers what they need to hear—couched in the way that will be most helpful.I've been steeping in the written word since I was a kid, and I have worked with words professionally for 15 years, as a writing instructor, a professional journalist, and a freelance writer and Big 5-published author myself. In the 2000s, I worked at two New York City-based magazines. In 2012, I published my own nonfiction book with Harper Perennial. In recent years, I have focused more intensively on teaching and freelance editing, as well as continuing on my own writing path. In 2018, I earned my MFA in fiction at The Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University, and I currently live with my family in Baltimore.As a copy editor, I'm efficient, astute, and thorough. I work with the Chicago Manual of Style, 17th Edition, and Merriam-Webster's dictionary.As a developmental editor and in manuscript evaluations, I pride myself on flexibility and insight. I make an effort to tailor my commentary according to what each author feels would be most helpful. While never neglecting the details, I also have a special knack for the big picture, and find special joy in helping authors locate the heart of their story, home in on what they're really trying to say. Literary fiction and memoir are my wheelhouse, and I'm very comfortable with self help books, psychology, and narrative nonfiction as well. I'm always honest, but I can be as blunt or as gentle as you wish.Here are some nice things that clients have said about working with me:• "I’m v excited for you to read it once more if you can find the will, Katherine, as I can’t tell you how much it improved once I dealt with your queries. There’s a lot more character development and balance to the characters. And putting my narrator on the bad pill just erased the slowing in the middle. Thanks again!"• "Your feedback is thoughtful and intelligent . . . you just blew me away sometimes."• "Thank you for the copy edit. Not only have you paid very close attention to punctuation, etc., but you have picked up on every sentence I had the minutest doubt about myself!"• "Will send you a proper note when I get back home to express my gratitude and joy in working with you. I'm very happy with the way the book turned out."• "From your comments, it was evident that you were not only making valuable suggestions, but that you had an intuitive understanding of this story and what I am attempting to convey. You were sensitive and cognizant of my style and voice."I am happy to forward a rate sheet, discuss your project and, if you are interested, provide an estimate. Thanks for looking.
Services
Non-Fiction
Biographies & Memoirs
Cooking, Food, Wine, & Spirits
Health & Wellbeing
Humanities & Social Sciences
Self-Help & Self-Improvement
Fiction
Literary Fiction
Short Story
Languages
English (UK)
English (US)
Awards
- Honorable Mention, Society of American Publishers PROSE Awards
Certifications
- MFA in fiction, Johns Hopkins University, 2018
- MA in English literature, Cornell University, 2005
Work experience
The Hopkins Review, Johns Hopkins University
Aug, 2016 —
Jul, 2019
(almost 3 years)
As the managing editor of The Hopkins Review, Johns Hopkins’s nationally distributed literary journal, I maintain cordial relationships with our authors, handle submissions (i.e. I manage our Submittable account, and reject or pass up the line work that comes to us there). I also maintain a spreadsheet to keep each issue on track, collect payroll information, serve as a liaison with JHU Press and web services, and manage a team of copy editors applying Chicago Style (CMoS 17) to every piece we publish. Finally, I provide a complete top-level proofread/second copy edit to every issue.
She Writes Press
Sep, 2015 —
Present
As a developmental editor for this well regarded hybrid press, I work on a variety of book projects, including novels, short stories, memoirs, and self-help titles. Sometimes I coach writers over the phone, but more often I provide deep and thorough written edits, along with an edit letter. A developmental edit answers any specific questions the writers may have about how to move their work forward, as well as offering my own insights about what it will take to bring a manuscript up to publishable quality.
She Writes Press
Sep, 2015 —
Present
I also work for She Writes as a copy editor, applying Chicago Style (CMoS 17) and performing line edits, as needed, to a variety of book-length manuscripts.
ReadyMade Magazine
Sep, 2009 —
Nov, 2010
(about 1 year)
I managed editorial operations of the website of this New York-based bimonthly lifestyle and shelter magazine, and wrote articles for print edition. I also hired and supervised interns and freelance writers, and oversaw a major website redesign.
Self-employed
Jan, 2007 —
Present
Over the years, I've written and published my own work—reviews, personal essays, and reported features—in a variety of outlets, including The New York Times, n+1, The Wall Street Journal, The San Francisco Chronicle, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Prevention, Nature, GOOD Magazine, Archaeology Magazine, The Brooklyn Rail, Washington Post Magazine, The Rumpus, The Hopkins Review, and Scientific American MIND. As a nonfiction writer, I have special expertise in relating science and medical topics for a general audience, as well as in reviews and cultural criticism.
As a writer-for-hire, I've also written non-bylined features and materials for clients including PCORI (the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute), Apple Computer, and NYU Langone Medical Center.
Finally, I am the author of a nonfiction book published by a major press: Coming of Age on Zoloft (Harper Perennial), 2012. This book won honorable mention in the Psychology category in the Society of American Publishers' PROSE awards.
My first published short story appears in the Winter 2019/2020 issue of Ploughshares.
Seed Media Group
Aug, 2006 —
Sep, 2008
(about 2 years)
At SEED, an award-winning magazine of science and culture, I was the lead editor and community manager of, a network of 70+ blogs that together received over 5.5 million pageviews a month. I also contributed to the print edition of Seed, hired and supervised interns, and participated closely in a major redesign of the ScienceBlogs homepage and its underlying website functionality.
Portfolio
Margaret Carlyle is searching for an epic love as she heads to college in 1979 after the loss of her beloved mother to cancer. When a charismatic boy named Anders rapes her on their first date, she wants nothing more than to forget it ever happened. But as the... read more
In the early 1900s, Gordon Clark and his father, Si, sold their farm in rural Canada in search of the business of America. They found it in Seattle, Washington, and in 1929 Gordon and his brother Russ bought Genesee Coal and Stoker. Seattle life in the late 19... read more
Life and Other Shortcomings is a collection of linked short stories that takes the reader from New Orleans to New York City to Madrid, and from 1970 to the present day. The women in these twelve stories make a number of different choices: some work, others don... read more
She was going to stab her doctor, but she wrote a book instead.Years later, Willa Goodfellow revisits her account of the antidepressant-induced hypomania that hijacked her Costa Rican vacation and tells the rest of the story: her missed diagnosis of Bipolar 2,... read more
Jill Sherer Murray lived in a dead-end relationship into her forties before she finally let it go. She was like millions of women who struggle with whether to stay in a loveless marriage, a bad relationship, or give up on dating altogether, believing love isn’... read more
When Carol Walsh pulled her fiancé from the bottom of a diving well—dead from a massive heart attack—her life was turned upside down. Even though she was a psychotherapist working with clients suffering from trauma, this personal shock felt unbearable. Nonethe... read more
Combining the thoughtful and expert narrative of a veteran mom of four children with the voices of hundreds of moms she surveyed, The Self-Care Solution offers insightful answers to poignant questions about how mothers take care of themselves, their relationsh... read more
Chances are, you've had a friend or a coworker or even a family member impacted by an abusive relationship. But do you know what to say, or maybe even more importantly, what not to say to him or her?Now you will. When Push Comes to Shove gives you an insider's... read more
Henrietta Von Harmon works as a 26 girl at a corner bar on Chicago’s northwest side. It’s 1935, but things still aren’t looking up since the big crash and her father’s subsequent suicide, leaving Henrietta to care for her antagonistic mother and younger siblin... read more
Since adolescence, Bravura and salt of the earth Susie have been partners in magic and best friends, as well as occasional bedmates. But when the two performers hire the mysterious and alluring Lena as a third banana to jazz up the act, Bravura falls madly in ... read more
Taking readers from 1905 Italy to present-day Philadelphia, The Legacy of Us uncovers how the lives of three generations of women are changed by love, loss and one little necklace. Liz Moretti thought she knew almost everything about her grandmother, Ella, fro... read more
In the spring of 2010, Tabita Green's daughter, Rebecka--then in seventh grade--started to feel depressed and lost a lot of weight. Almost immediately, Rebecka's well-meaning health care providers recommended that she take an antidepressant (Zoloft) to "kick-s... read more
Odile Atthalin was a young woman from a prominent, bourgeois family in Paris when she decided to leave home in search of meaning. All she knew was that she wanted to go East; but once she had separated from France and committed to creating a new life for herse... read more
When she was twenty, Patricia Reis’s mother asked, “What about your spiritual life?” Years later, this question drives her midlife quest to reconcile the desires of her body with the mandates of her spirit.Motherlines is a candid and compelling story of sex wi... read more
There are times in life that shake us to our very foundations. We wish for things to get better, fast. But the truth is that moments of “falling apart” are also our most powerful catalysts for growth and change. In Falling Together, Donna Cardillo, a registere... read more
Katherine has 2 reviews
Professionalism
Quality
Value
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Tom R.
Oct, 2020
Stephen L.
Feb, 2020
